After such a wonderful foot massage the night before, I woke up with more energy than the day before! While today would be the day we would leave Hatyai, we had planned for more shopping.

Everyone knows this Hatyai market!

But first, we needed to fill our tummies. The hotel provided free breakfast but the breakfast spread at Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel was nothing to blog about. It was just food to keep one’s tummy from growling. The spread wasn’t extensive and it was hard getting a spoon or even a fork! The guests of the hotel swamped the breakfast area so it was like a free-for-all.

Beautiful Thai crockery

We’d planned to go to the Sunday market to buy edibles. Hatyai is famous for many edibles – fish maw, cashew nuts, dried scallops, dried oysters, Koh Kae brand of flavoured peanuts, seaweed snacks and more. Even the not-so-edible stuff is famous such as Zebra brand stainless steel pots, steamers and such. And then there are the leather and non-leather bags, purses, pouches in addition to clothes and shoes.

Fruits too are aplenty but my Thai aunt told me to be wary of such fruits. Thais, whether knowingly or not, use additives and preservatives to ensure their fruits last longer and look better. At one time, no one bought longans from Thailand because the longan farmers oversprayed their fruit with chemicals! I don’t know if it is ignorance but it is better to be safe.

One of those common sweet snacks you can find is the dodol or durian sweets. They’re chewy and sweet. Great as gifts but really, how many can you eat in one sitting? I’d rather have the real thing!

Pandan flavour and natural flavour durian dodol

Anyway, Cecilia had popped into a crockery shop to check the price of a steamer she wanted to buy. Saw this cute little pug! I wonder if he is for sale!

Saw this cute pug in a shop selling stainless steelware

The market is the must-go place in Hatyai. It’s typically like our markets in Malaysia except that this one has both food, clothes, bags and shoes. It’s the kind of place you want to go and poke about just because it is so damn interesting. Thai markets are treasure troves. Like I said, most stuff are cheap and kitschy and full of bling. Quality-wise you’d be better off buying elsewhere BUT if you are eyeing food, they do have good things on offer. Why is it that Thais produce better foodstuffs than us? Food like glutionous rice, agar agar powder, even fresh mee and kueh tiaw! I mean you don’t have to look far to know that Thai rice is absolutely fragrant and delicious, even on its own.

This is dried fish maw

Dried seafood is apparently THE thing to buy in this market and its surrounding shops (which do such brisk business that even if you run out of Thai currency, they’d happily take your Malaysian Ringgit). One particular shop directly opposite the market looks like a jewellery store, all painted in yellow with bright yellow lights. But it sells dried seafood like fish maw, scallops and oysters. And it is BUSY!

Everything seems bigger here - look at these dried mushrooms!

So yes, Hatyai is a tempting little town with lots to buy. For Penangites, it’s a weekend escape for the whole family. Food is perceived to be cheaper and far more delicious, especially Thai tom yam and those “muu” or pork dishes. Hatyai doesn’t make a dent in your pocket and it’s not so far away that you cannot feel at home. Plus the enterprising Thais speak Mandarin and Hokkien fluently these days, apart from Teochew so you won’t even have to learn Thai.

What more can you ask for, in a weekend getaway for shopping-mad Malaysians?

All the edibles you can buy in this Hatyai market

/files/logo-mayakirana.png00krista/files/logo-mayakirana.pngkrista2011-07-01 14:38:212011-07-01 14:38:21Hatyai With Dancing Ladies, Almost Final

But the Uncle who was our tour guide decided that we should take in another form of entertainment before we adjourned for dinner near our Lee Gardens Plaza hotel. It was still early and we surely needed something exciting to tell our families about.

He thought we would like the Ice Dome which was really about going into a hall full of ice sculptures. Personally, I don’t like the cold (look, I couldn’t even stand the spring weather of 15C in Hong Kong, ok, what more minus zero!) and secondly, I don’t like wearing jackets which the whole Hatyai town has been wearing.

You see, to bear the cold, you had to wear a loaned jacket from the Ice Dome people.

A few of us declined going into the ice sculpture exhibition and Uncle tour guide thought we were too stingy with our baht.

Pfft! I’d rather spend it on a good foot massage in town that night so Cecilia, me and a few others just sat around the public park when the whole group went into the freezing dome. Give me a museum and I’d be more than happy but an ice dome full of cold sculptures? No way.

Luckily that little detour at the ice dome lasted less than 2 hours and in no time, we were on our way back to town and dinner! I was ravenous and kept thinking about the little shopping adventure I’d have once dinner was done.

We took up 2 tables at this Chinese restaurant just a few steps away from our hotel. My travel companions took this as a chance to really eat and let their hair down. With Thai beers and some suckling pig (of course with other dishes as well), the ladies literally toasted the town. The 2 male tour guides (one was our Malaysian Uncle and the other was Thai-Chinese tour guide, his counterpart) probably thought we were the best group ever. We didn’t need to be guided. The ladies as I mentioned are old hands in finding their way in Hatyai. They knew this town like the back of their hand!

Hatyai town is full of cheap, kitschy stuff – the kind we all like once in a while. I’m horrible at bargaining because I always think, “Never mind lah, let the vendor earn a little more.” That’s why I am such a supermarket shopper. Even when I am not shopping at the supermarket!

Anyway, after dinner, everyone dispersed to do their own thing which was really one thing – SHOPPING! The streets were bursting with people and smells of food and honking tuk-tuks and cars. I decided to go off on my own to check out the night bazaar. We agreed to meet up again for foot reflexology in a few hours’ time.

I’m not crazy about shopping in the regular way so I was just browsing and looking around. If an item caught my eye, I’d look at it closer but here’s the problem with shopping in Hatyai (especially the night bazaars), you cannot try the outfit! You go for a hit or a miss so you better know your size. If you shop in the shopping malls, it’s OK – you can go to the fitting room.

Thai clothes vendors on the street are smart. When you sigh about not being able to try the blouse/skirt, they whip out their measuring tape and measure you and pick out the size for you. If it does not fit, they say in Thai-accented English, bring it back the next day (they KNOW you are visiting Hatyai for the weekend). With such low prices, you hem and haw a bit but you know even if it doesn’t fit, it’s OK, you won’t be losing much. It’s just a piece you buy for the heck of it!

My travel companions shared a tip – when you come to Hatyai, come with an empty bag. You don’t need a change of clothes because you can buy your clothes and wear them immediately. Your bag is going to be full of your shopping items later so save yourself the trouble of bringing clothes! Isn’t it cool or what?

It was almost 11pm when I got back to our hotel room. After a lovely cool shower, I heard a knock on my door. The ladies invited me to go out to get a foot massage. Two of them were already in their PJs but we thought, heck, it’s still early. Getting a Thai foot massage was definitely on my list. In fact I had wanted to engage a masseur to come to my room and give me a body massage.

So 8 of us women literally swamped a tiny reflexology shop (which doubled as a hair salon – don’t ask me why but Thais are damn enterprising) for an hour’s worth of reflexology. After a day of shopping and walking and eating, this was my personal piece of heaven. I’m a veteran at this – wherever I go, I must sample the local massage. It turned out rather good or maybe I was buoyed by my happiness at having bought a beautiful white cotton blouse.

It was almost 1am when we got back to our hotel rooms. Sleeping after a good foot workout was simply divine!

It started with someone giving me their phone number a few years ago because I wanted to contact them to give a talk at Mensa Penang.

They invited us to listen to their environment talk at the Pulau Tikus church one morning.

I was totally in awe of the tireless work they do.

They could have been enjoying a happy retirement in their home in Bukit Mertajam but they felt compelled to help the environment by teaching people a cleaner, easier method of recycling household wastes. The method also produces enough money for the local community to donate to their favourite causes or charity homes.

In fact over the past 12 years, they have helped raise over RM50,000 for their local charities. All these from two people who believed that they could. This does not take into account that their method is also helping many companies and hospitals and households in Penang go green easily. (Their method is clever and easy. The usual recycle bin method brings a lot of problems – dirty, smelly and who cleans the bins anyway? Their method makes recycling an accountable and effortless habit.)

And I can vouch that there are no flies, no smells and no stink. What I get is rich compost – so rich that sometimes little seeds start growing right in the compost pots!

Over the past year and a half, Nic and I have thrown out very little rubbish because we recycle anything that can be recycled and we compost our organic food scraps. (I say this before prior to this, we lived high up and didn’t have the space to do all the green and eco-friendly things we wanted to do. Now that we’ve moved to a ground floor apartment with a scrap of backyard, I am now greener!). I save up used cooking oil to give to Mylene each time I see her. She passes it to a contractor who uses this cooking oil to make soap.

Whenever we meet up, we have many stories to exchange, primarily because Don and Mylene give a talk once every two weeks upon invitation from factories, NGOs, hospitals, schools and corporate bodies. They are also a couple who have enough energy to put younger people to shame. It is not easy for a couple in their 60s and 70s going all over Penang and sometimes all the way down to Johor to give free talks.

It is a tireless and oftentimes, a thankless role as environmental ambassadors and green crusaders. I hope I have their enthusiasm and energy when I get to my 60s.

What is not strange is that we love visiting them and each time we do, we have a feast!

Most elderly people will cringe at eating unhealthy stuff but not them. Oh not this feisty Eurasian couple!

Mylene, Don and me at Look Yuen Restaurant, Bukit Mertajam

Don loves his ‘too kar’ and so do I. So when we meet up, we go for ‘too kar’ (pig’s trotters) in Nibong Tebal which has a totally sinful version. This time around, we went to Look Yuen Restaurant in Bukit Mertajam for braised pig’s trotters. It was still unbelievably sinful and like chocolate, the gelatinous bits melted right in my mouth!

Besides the main star of the lunch (the trotters), other dishes which were heaven included Nyonya-style prawn sambal with a kick, springy fish ball soup (normally I don’t like fish balls but this was an exception) and stirfried sawi or mustard greens. Before we tucked into our main meal, we ordered 2 rounds of fruit rojak from the stall located just outside the restaurant. Pure yumminess!

Plus Don never says no to chocolate ice cream or chocolate while watching golf on TV.

Now how many senior citizens you know who are so darn cool?

/files/logo-mayakirana.png00krista/files/logo-mayakirana.pngkrista2011-05-31 14:59:462011-05-31 14:59:46The Hip Way To Being Green

We were spending a two-day, one-night weekend in the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in the heart of Hatyai town.

It was a clever idea to get this hotel as it was smack dab in the midst of all the activity of the town and surrounded on all sides by malls, shops, restaurants, Western cafes and roadside stalls.

With such a great location, it’s just minutes away from all the shopping and eating we could all indulge in. (Later I found out that these ladies wrangled this hotel at the last minute due to knowing one of the directors of this hotel, who was an ex-student of Han Chiang High School. Normally this hotel is fully booked and packed to the gills with Malaysians.)

In fact, it’s built right on top of a shopping mall. I had a good view of the town from the hotel lobby.

I decided to take a quick nap after we checked in although the ladies decided to succumb to the shopping bug downstairs. I think a bit of shut-eye would make me more alert as I knew we would be staying up late (at least I knew I’d be!).

Around 4.30pm, we were again in our tour bus, shuttled to the Hatyai Floating Market.

A long row of floating sampans

Now I know and you know that this is really a tourist gimmick. Trust the enterprising Thais to create a way to give tourists something to do and something to eat and something to see. After all, if you really think about it, Hatyai isn’t exactly Disneyland. Spend more than 2 days here and you’d be bored to tears. It’s great for a weekend but anything more is overkill.

Hatyai - straight ahead

It was a bit of a let down because the market vendors had lined up sampans along the embankment of a river and seated all the food business folks into these sampans. It wasn’t as if these sampans were cruising the river and you could stop one to get your food.

Floating market in Hatyai

Ah well. Maybe it was just jaded old me.

Colours and smells of the floating market

In typical Thai style, the food was enticing and presented well. Even drinks were sold in cute clay Doraemon mugs you could take home! But like Cecilia noted, who knows if the unglazed clay mugs were washed? They could be dusty and dirty. True.

Your takeaway mug

We decided to just browse around. The rest of the market showed just how creative and enterprising the Thai people really are.

One stall had items such as handbags and cowboy hats made from aluminium or beer cans.

Handmade hats from beer cans

This lady was deftly putting together a cowboy hat made with flattened pieces of aluminium beer cans.

Beer can cowboy hat

I also chanced upon fresh tamarind fruits. Tamarind is high in Vitamin C and the fruit is encased in a brown shell which breaks easily. Unlike the tamarind used for cooking, fresh tamarind is sweet and sticky, much like a fresh date.

Fresh tamarind fruit

It was a warm afternoon with the last rays of the sun beating down on us. I decided to quickly walk across a bridge where I soon came upon a stall selling fried bugs and fried worms.

Fried worms and fried grasshoppers as snacks

Now I’ve seen enough of this on TV and was eager to bite into one. I had to know what the texture of a fried bug would be.

Fried roaches about 2 inches long

A number of people gawked at the bugs on the trays, stopping to snap photos but none were buying.

I decided to buy a packet (it was only 20 Baht or RM2). I asked the seller if I could mix 2 types of bugs into my one order. He was too happy to do so. I chose fried worms (looked a bit like the worms you get in pet shops to feed birds) and fried grasshoppers. I figured at least the grasshoppers ate proper green stuff unlike cockroaches, which was also for sale but the cockroach was huge and I didn’t know if I could bite it in half!

To make the bugs more palatable, the seller sprinkled some seasoning with a squirt of soy sauce.

Everyone looked at me, even strangers who were milling about and snapping photos of the bugs. I just speared one with a toothpick and popped one into my mouth. The fried worm tasted like dried prawn or “hae bee” albeit with a softer texture. It wasn’t bad at all.

Next I tried the fried grasshopper, about an inch long. This offered a crunch and it was also rather tasty. No icky taste at all. This could be the start of my love affair with bugs!

As I was happily munching on my bug snacks, Noel and BL were watching me. It looks horrible if you’re not eating it – your imagination powers up your innate fears about worms and creepy crawlies. It’s like Fear Factor – voyeurs tend to be more emotional than the people who eat those taboo things.

I offered Noel and BL some and they sportingly took some, though Noel wanted to have some water ready before he swallowed his fried worm. I told him that it was not fair to swallow it – he had to chew it and taste it.

Noel took up my challenge - to eat a fried worm!

It was a novelty all right but it was something exciting and fun and it capped the day for me. It was far more exciting than any pseudo floating market.

More to come… shopping on my own in Hatyai’s night market and a late night surprise!

It was one of those spontaneous things – I got invited to join a group of line dancing ladies from Han Chiang for a weekend in Hatyai in January (yes this is a very late post but better late than never ya!). Nic was visiting Kuching for the week and I had nothing planned so I thought, what a great idea.

Thailand immigration checkpoint

I was amazed I could wake up that early for our bus ride into Thailand. I hadn’t been to Hatyai in years – not since the last time my uncle and aunt drove us there. I know Hatyai may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I know it’s a fun, kitschy place. It’s all things weird and funky. And did it get funkier as the day went!

Sawadee kap!

Once we reached the border, it was quite a chaotic jam. As it was a Saturday, lots of cars and tour buses were making their way into Thailand too. Our bus took more than an hour to inch its way toward the border which separates Malaysia from Thailand. Technically, it was just a long gate. Once we passed the gate, everyone got down to clear immigration. We had to get our passports stamped.

Now I don’t know if you know this but apparently, our tour leader had to “visit” the Thai immigration office while we patiently lined up. He was “doing the necessary”. If he did not do the necessary, then the immigration officers might give us hell and slowly take their time. Can anyone confirm this? Apparently it’s an open secret. People just pay and move on. After all, they just want a weekend in Hatyai – so a few ringgit here and there won’t kill anyone.

Star of the meal - braised pork leg Thai style

Our first stop was for lunch (a very early one for Hatyai standards) just a few kilometres after we cleared the Thai immigration. Everyone who visits Thailand has 2 things in mind – food and shopping. Presumably, there’s nothing more delicious than real tongue-searing tomyam soup in Thailand.

Thai people are also big on “muu” or pork dishes so besides the ubiquitous tomyam, we had to order the braised pork leg with its gelatinous skin. The tomyam worked well in creating an appetite and a contrast to the richness of the simmered pork leg, tender in each mouthful.

Once our lunch was done, we trooped into a traditional style biscuit shop a few doors away.

Apparently these travelling companions of mine were old hands at this.

They knew which shop to buy from, which restaurant to eat at.

I marvelled at the way these ladies descended upon the biscuit shop. (It’s a wonderful change for me. Usually I am the holiday planner when Nic and I go travelling. This trip really allowed me to sit back and let others make decisions for a change.)

The biscuit shop had very good business that day!

It wasn’t asking about the biscuits – boy, these ladies knew what they were after.

Crunchy savoury meat floss crackers

It was just a matter of deciding how much to order!

This was selling for 35 baht (around RM3.50)

This shop sold kuih kapit with floss filling besides “thnee kuih” and all types of Thai biscuits and delicacies with a crunch.

More crispy and crunchy stuff to tempt

In the end the ladies ordered tins of kuih kapit. Luckily, our bus was only half full so they could really shop to their hearts’ desire.

Kuih kapit in tins

And this was only the first 2 hours outside Hatyai – we hadn’t even reached our hotel yet.

To be continued…. (where I get to the pseudo-floating market and eat a bunch of bugs, much to my friends’ disgust!)

Well, they featured my how-to as well as a tiny picture of me holding a tub of yogurt on 20 March 2011.

UPDATE
[Li Choo, the Guang Ming reporter, recently emailed me the link to the feature on the Guang Ming website. Here’s the link: http://www.guangming.com.my/node/98904?tid=46 This online report also includes photos of how I made my yogurt in a step-by-step way.]

It was published about 2 weeks after I gave the photos to the journalist. It was also a day before our trip to Hong Kong which meant if it had been later, I would not have managed to run down to the Indian news vendor to grab a copy. The journalist had SMSed me and told me it was appearing in the Sunday edition – this was a feature you see.

Featured in Guang Ming newspaper 20 March 2011

The thing is, I am still a newbie at Mandarin so my reading skills aren’t terribly exciting. I can manage roughly to get an idea what the feature said. Hope to get it translated one day by my aunt.

But if you want the English version, you can get the yogurt recipe here – I call it the pictorial guide.

It’s become a habit of ours to exchange plants and seeds. She often said that she wished most companies would give her a potted plant as a token of appreciation instead of the usual souvenirs like mugs and engraved plaques. I agree.

At least getting a plant means you get to take a life home.

She told me that this plant could help prevent ailments. Chief among those was cancer. Ooohhh.

I asked her the name of the plant but she didn’t know.

So me being the intrepid and curious sort decided to find out. I happened to have an old book on indoor plants (which I wrangled from my dad years ago – one never knows with parents. They have a propensity of throwing or giving old books away). So I looked it up and figured it’s called Wandering Jew.

The pleasure of living in the 21st century is that ANYTHING can be checked and confirmed online.

So I started browsing some websites and ended up confirming that yes, this is called an Inch Plant, a Wandering Jew plant and Tradescantia zebrina (its proper name).

Close up of the wandering jew plant

It can be a house plant or grown outside as ground cover but further reading unearthed that if you do plant it as ground cover, beware that it might overtake the entire ground! Yes, this plant may look harmless but it is invasive.

Now I am more interested in this plant as a medicinal herb (yes, this is another addition to my herbal collection which I am growing).

The first blog link above recommends using 200 gm of the Wandering Jew leaves to be boiled with 15 dried red dates and 12 slices of ginger in a pot of 1.5 liters of water. Simmer for 1.5 hours before adding brown sugar. This tea apparently helps remove toxins from your body.

Mylene said that her friend boils this plant and drinks it for health maintenance. For now, I am contented just having it grow on the balcony. Wait till it grow a little bit bigger before I pluck its leaves for a herbal tisane!

I have been rather tied up with things lately that I have had very little time to blog.

But today being Wesak Day, I decided to give myself a break and come back to my scribbles. Lots of you have checked in and found too few updates. I promise to be regular. The thing is, I have way too many stories to tell.

As it is Wesak today, let me tell you a story about giving. (We went to the Than Hsiang Temple just this morning. It wasn’t as packed as I’d imagined despite the number of cars on the side of the road.)

We received a lovely surprise not too long ago in the post.

Thank you card from Kawan Shop in Chulia Street

It was simple yet touching. And we felt immediately humbled and thankful.

Kawan Shop is on Chulia Street, directly opposite Kassim Mustafa Nasi Kandar (yes, the one with the lipsmacking duck curry which I’ve written about yonks ago).

They are a Christian missionary project by Youth With A Mission Malaysia organisation.

The Kawan Shop depends on well-wishers and generous people to fund and sustain their missionary work. Kawan Shop is where you drop off your old but still useful clothes, electrical appliances, household items, toys, books and bits and bobs. They’ll clean these items and put them up for sale at RM5 apiece. Some items are priced at RM1 and whatever they make, the money goes to fund their work.

As I’m always cleaning out stuff from my closet and spare room, I have plenty to donate to them. We make it a point to drop off things every few months but their opening hours can be erratic.

On top of that, parking on Chulia Street on a regular day is very traumatic, with Rapid Penang buses maneuvering tight corners and narrow roads and cars parked here and there. (Did I mention our favourite beef noodles is just around the corner too?)

Anyway, if you have items to donate to Kawan Shop (better to donate than create more landfills!), make sure you call them up beforehand to ensure they are open for business (Tel: 04 261 8405 or email kawanpg@ywammalaysia.org).

I was completely surprised by the handwritten card – it was just a plain piece of card, folded into half. But to take the time to pen a note to people who support Kawan Shop, it spoke volumes to us about the team behind Kawan.

It is such a blessing to give!

Handwritten message from Kawan Shop

As it is Wesak Day today, let us all experience our little moments of enlightenment here on earth!